Reviews: Craftex

When starting a shop life is full of compromises. We’d all like to install big cyclones with top of the line 6” mains and dedicated drops to each of our machines. However when starting out money is tight and we don’t yet have all the machines in our shop nor really a firm idea of their proper locations. Thus a portable collector that gets moved around is often the way we start collecting dust.
I was initially hoping to find a portable cyclone but they were all either unde...

Up here in Canada we have the BusyBee chain and their house brand is Craftex. Their equipment is almost identical to Grizzly and this particular jointer is almost identical to the Grizzly G0490. This jointer most likely comes from the same factory as it seems identical in every respect save for the power switch mount.
Given I live in a city with a BusyBee location I was able to get the jointer delivered quicker and cheaper than buying the Grizzly. Many other vendors sell almost identical l...

Well, I’ve had my new CX200 for about two months now and overall, I couldn’t be happier. My old BT3100 said our goodbyes and I borrowed my son, his friend and his truck and off to Busy Bee we went. I had actually purchased the saw two weeks prior to this but I wanted to sell my old one before getting the CX200 home. As it was, I got it home and the BT3100 was still in the garage so I just left it in boxes. Three of us manhandled this 500 lb bad boy off the back of the pickup…...

Here’s a little review for any of you fellow Canucks out there who are looking for information on Craftex machines. For most US citizens this review will mean virtually nothing because as far as I can tell Craftex is a brand that is pretty much exclusively marketed and sold in Canada through the Busy Bee Tools franchises. I have heard that there is some relationship between Busy Bee and Grizzly but I don’t believe the conspiracy theories.
I purchased this bandsaw in the sprin...

I have been using a single stage dust collection system for over a year now and have found that the bottom bag fills up quickly and the top filter bag gets really messy. I finally upgraded to a two stage system and it works great. The lid I use has two ports and the port that connects to the tool has an L-shaped elbow that connects to the underside of the port. I have the lid on a heavy duty Rubbermaid garbage can but might upgrade to a deeper can sometime. After doing a bunch of planing and ...

I have had this sander for almost a year now and it has been great. I always needed a disc sander but always had trouble trying to pick one. There are many similar ones to the sander that I have and there are also combination units with a disc and a belt. I decided I really only needed the disc since I only sand wooden toy parts, bandsaw boxes, and for shaping plus I have limited shop space. I decided to choose this sander. The 12 inch disc makes for lots of sanding surface which is a big adv...

The Craftex Blue Tornado Dado Set
(CBT017) 8”X24
Cutting dadoes and rabbets in sheet material such as veneer coated plywood or particleboard or melamine coated particleboard is a routine procedure in woodworking. What isn’t so routine is cutting splinter free dadoes and rabbets in this type of material but now that’s a thing of the past with the Craftex Blue Tornado 8” CBTO17 dado set.
The Craftex Blue Tornado line of saw blades, router bits and shaper cutters is exclusive to Busy ...

I have had my Nova 1624 Lathe for a almost 6 months. It is a quality machine. However as easy as it is to do, I hate changing the belt to change speeds. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about a new, more powerful lathe. Something with variable speed, larger capacity, more horsepower, and something that will quench my lust for bigger and better.
I initially thought I had a great deal on a Powermatic 3560b. It turned out to be not true. At the same time I started reexamining Busy Bee’s Craf...

I found this at Busy Bee Tools in Canada, during one of their sales. Normally it retails for $99 CND and at that price I would rather hold out and save a bit more for something of a better name, but for their sale price of $52 CND, I figured it was at a price point that was worth the risk.
Overall, the jig is not too bad, it works pretty standard as similarly designed jigs, like Rockler’s, and has a removable aluminum plate that can be changed out for various other sizes.
Clearly...

My new 18” 2 hp bandsaw on a mobile base.The upper wheel assembly is mounted to a channel steel support doing away with the older style castings.
The safety switch as well as the power switch are mounted at waist height for easy accessibility.
The table is about 3 inches lower than that of my old 14” bandsaw making it more comfrtable to use for “certain ” people around my shop.
The aluminum fence is mounted on ball bearings and clamps down with one hand li...